Mr Logic

Don't recall that vow myself.

Where did you get that from? Tamil? Mortuary: Place of the dead Mortician: Deals with cadavers etc. etc.

He's a lawyer? Source?

The papers 'story' could still be fallacious in that they are just adding two and two together. There's no proof they even know each other really. They just live in the same vicinity, could be miles apart and have no idea where the other even lives.

What about the subs bench?

Given our track record for scuppering supposed Spuds deals it might well come true, and I have to say, imo, Bent could replace Owen and easilly replace Martins. (Let's face it he's going to be diving for cover every time he hears a bang.)

Just realised Houllier signed him for Liverpool, Rafa let him go as he did with many of Houlliers buys, Houllier resigned him for Lyon. He was involved in 14 games of the team that won the league. He'll do. Get him in.

Why are Lyon ditching him though? And if he was so promising for Bayern why did they let him go to Liverpool? Why did Liverpool let him go? Seems everyone just lets him go. How much did Lyon pay for him? Wait on, I'll try to think of a few more questions Found this: It is fair to suggest that central midfielder Alou Diarra made far more of an impact for his country than he did at Liverpool before he was sold by Rafael Benitez in 2005 to Lens. He was signed by Gerard Houllier from Bayern Munich in 2002 but only played 45 minutes in a pre-season game in Le Havre. He was never seen again in a red shirt but then ended up playing in the 2006 World Cup Final as a substitute for France in their defeat to Italy. Diarra is now playing under Houllier at Lyon. Before leaving Anfield Diarra spent season long loan spells with Le Havre and Bastia before being transferred to Lens. Before he signed for Liverpool Diarra had found it hard to break into the Bayern Munich team but did gain experience on loan at German side Freiburg during the 2001-2002 season. A defensive midfielder, Diarra moved to Bayern Munich from French second division side CS Louhans-Caiseaux in 2000, and appeared during the 2000/01 campaign in Bayern's third-league side. He's 26 now and has apparently yet to be a hit anywhere, and yet he's on the fringes of the first XI for France. Certainly need someone like this though, if Sam can work his magic.

World Cup XI! Whatever next? Don't think anyone is certain he was in the France XI yet.

Agree with that, and also believe the clean sweep at higher levels was a necessary part of the process. Great news. Things are turning full circle, we looked to be in a woeful position as the season ended.

Mooted Big Sam was thinking of Dyer for right back, maybe he's got the Zog pencilled in as LB.

Ok, I'm getting a bit worried Sam thinks a bit too much of effort. (Mind you there's nought to this deal yet but rumour.)

Smith is rubbish and Bent for 16m is a decent deal. How would it have been if Smith was going to Spurs and Bent to Newcastle? Bent is rubbish and Smith is good value?

Could it be you have a jaundiced eye for anyone that plays for the other half of Manchester?

Deal done say BBC. Could prove to be a good buy. Which one of him or Emre will have a crash first travelling between Boro and Newc to see each other every other day?

Looks like they play for Coventry or Man City to me. Bring back the maroon and blue as worn by Sir Les and Ginola.

The Sun makes up stories, could well be the player never made the quotes attributed to him.

I was expecting some news today, but thought it would be about defenders. Owens or Martins is gone (possibly both!) if this comes true.

Despite their best efforts to sign the defender, Dortmund chief Hans-Joachim Watzke announced “Paris St. Germain have informed us that they will not meet us half way on the transfer fee. Therefore the file is now closed on this deal.” The Ruhr club had raised their original bid to £2.7 million, but this was still not enough to get their man. It is believed that the 26 year old will now be on his way to Newcastle United and Dortmund will have to look elsewhere for a defender.

Getting to the stage I'm almost frightened to open up a thread because all I'll see is crap. Almost impossible to have a decent discussion about anything. Really depressing

Been thinking a bit about this of late and I know others, including myself, have expressed similar thoughts regarding trust in his decisions about players to bring in. But is that trust really justified? It seems he made a lot of transfers at Bolton which didn't result in successful first teamers. In fact it looks more like for every 4 players he bought only 1 made it into a regular starting position. At the end of the day all that matters is having that successful team on the pitch, so does it matter how many players he buys that don't work out? Well it does in this first season, because he has to be seen to turn things round quite dramatically. If for instance he brought 8 players in and only 2 or 3 really made the grade that might not help us too much. Also one has to consider the wage structure here at Newcastle is miles away from the one at Bolton. Can he bring players in on 10k when others in the team are, reputedly, on 8, 9 and even 10 times that? There's a canny article here.. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20010922/ai_n14407163 ..that I hadn't read before. (Long read alert, 2 pages). There's no doubt if he's given the time to implement his vision that he will transform this club. I for one don't care how many duds he buys, as long as they don't come with transfer figures like Boumsong and Luque, provided he get a bare-bones 16 players that are bleeding for the club week in week out.

Not the noises you would expect/hope to hear from a player who was keen to come here.. Reading that you could be excused thinking we were third choice.

They have added another defender today. Andreas Granqvist signing from Helsingborg on a two-year deal, a 22-year-old defender who was apparently on loan with them last season at some stage. He gets to play with Bramble, bless him.

I'm assuming you don't know the position with Owen, will he stay, will he go. Therefore you can't know the situation with Allardyce wanting more strikers or not. For the record I think Owen is ours at least until january, and probably all season. And therefore Allardyce probably isn't looking at more strikers. I'd swap Ameobi for Gudjohnsen in a heartbeat though.

I know that it is "St James' Park", but it shouldn't be, abcdefg was right. I always thought there was something wrong with writing St James', it didn't make sense to me but I am not a grammar expert by any means. Glad I read that post. But it still sounds right to say St James's and not St James, so I know what I will be writing in future. At the ground where Newcastle play..